"If Modi ji has even half the courage of Indira Gandhi, he must say that Donald Trump is lying"

In a no-holds-barred attack, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of using the armed forces to protect his image after the Pahalgam attack and dared him to rebut US President Donald Trump's India-Pakistan ceasefire claims. "If Modi ji has even 50 per cent of the courage that Indira Gandhi had, then clearly he must say in Parliament - Donald Trump is lying," he said. Gandhi also said that if the government had listened to his statement in Lok Sabha a few months ago on China and Pakistan fusing together, they would "not have lost five aircraft" during Operation Sindoor. Participating in a special discussion in Lok Sabha on "India's strong, successful and decisive Operation Sindoor in response to the terror attack in Pahalgam", he claimed the government revealed sensitive details about Operation Sindoor to Pakistan, soon after it was launched. "Yesterday, I watched Rajnath Singh ji's speech. He said that Operation Sindoor began at 1:05 in the morning and lasted for 22 minutes. He said a very shocking thing: that at 1:35, we called Pakistan and told them that we had hit non-military targets and we didn't want escalation. These are the words of the Defence Minister of India," the former Congress president said.

"You told Pakistan exactly what you would do: that you would not target military establishments and you didn't want escalation. That's surrender. Immediate surrender in 30 minutes," Gandhi said, slamming the government. He cited remarks by Defence Attache in Indonesia, Group Captain Shiv Kumar, to claim that there were constraints by the political leadership to not attack the Pakistani military establishment and their air defences. Why was the Pakistani government told that India will neither attack their army infrastructure nor their air defense and why were the hands of the Indian Air Force tied, Gandhi asked. He alleged that the goal of this exercise was to "protect the image of the PM" as he had "blood of Pahalgam victims on his hands". Gandhi said this government is clueless about what deterrence and political will means, and gave Indira Gandhi's example when Pakistan was broken into two parts in 1971. "I said in this House, three-four months back and they laughed at me. I said please understand that India's biggest foreign policy challenge has been to keep Pakistan and China separate. And I said here that I am sad to say that you have destroyed the single biggest goal of foreign policy. China and Pakistan are fused," Gandhi said. He said that what happened during Operation Sindoor is that the government of India thought it was fighting Pakistan but soon realised suddenly that they were fighting China and Pakistan both. "Meaning that the Pakistani Air Force was attached with the Chinese Air Force and not only that, the doctrine of the Pakistani Air Force was changed ...the Chinese were feeding critical battlefield information to them," he said and cited Deputy Chief of Army Staff Lieutenant General Rahul R Singh remarks on China's support to Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.

Gandhi asserted that the armed forces should be used with freedom, saying if one wants to unleash a tiger, it should be freed. "Do not tie his hands behind his back. Go all the way, defeat them once and for all. Don't have President Trump tell you 29 times that he stopped the war. Have the courage to tell him, 'no, to hell with you, you can't stop any war, we are going to fight'," the former Congress president said. The point is that we're now facing a Chinese-Pakistani fusion right in front of us, he said. "This is a very dangerous time, and we can't afford a Prime Minister who lacks the courage to utilise the army the way it has to be used. We can't afford a Prime Minister who doesn't have the guts to say from here that Donald Trump is a liar, that he didn't stop India from fighting and is lying about the planes," Gandhi said. He said India need a Prime Minister who frees the Army, Air Force and Navy and tells them -- 'Go, finish the job", much like what Indira Gandhi did. Gandhi claimed that Trump has stated "29 times" that he brought about a ceasefire between India and Pakistan. "If he is lying, the PM should say here that Trump is lying. If he has the courage of an Indira Gandhi let him say here, 'Trump, you are a liar, you did not make a ceasefire and we dd not lose any planes'," Gandhi said. "If Modi ji has even 50 per cent of the courage that Indira Gandhi had, then clearly he must say in Parliament - Donald Trump is lying!" he said.

In his remarks, Gandhi also referred to a statement of Chief of Defence Staff General Anil Chauhan, who said in an interview that India rectified its tactics and hit deep inside Pakistani territory after suffering losses during Operation Sindoor. "The Indian Air Force made no mistake but the mistake was committed by the political leadership that 'you cannot attack military infrastructure and CDS Anil Chauhan must say 'my hands were tied so the Air Force is not to be blamed at all'," Gandhi said. Gandhi asserted that the Pahalgam incident was a brutal attack that was organised and orchestrated clearly by the Pakistani state. Referring to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar's remarks in the House, Gandhi said he did not tell people that no country condemned Pakistan particularly. "When UPA government was there Pakistan was condemned for terrorism," he said. Gandhi slammed Modi for not speaking out when Trump hosted the "architect of the Pahalgam attack", Pakistan Army Chief Asim Munir, for lunch.